China asks Alibaba to dispose of media assets: WSJ

China’s government has asked Alibaba Group to dispose of its media assets, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter.

Discussions over the matter have been held since early this year, the report said, adding that officials were shocked at how expansive Alibaba’s media interests have become.

The company, whose mainstay business is online retail, has stakes in the Twitter-like Weibo platform and several news outlets including Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post.

Such influence is seen as posing serious challenges to the Chinese Communist Party and its own powerful propaganda apparatus, the Journal’s sources were quoted as saying.

Alibaba did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In a Tuesday letter to South China Morning Post employees, the newspaper’s CEO, Gary Liu, said: “Alibaba’s commitment to SCMP remains unchanged and continues to support our mission and business goals.”  — Reported by Sophie Yu, Tony Munroe and Akanksha Rana, (c) 2021 Reuters